A de novo hearing, by phone: who is on the call
If you have appealed a Minnesota unemployment determination, the next thing that happens is a hearing before an Unemployment Law Judge, or ULJ. The statute calls it a "de novo due process hearing" — Minn. Stat. § 268.105, subd. 1(a) — which means the judge starts from zero and decides the case on the evidence presented at the hearing, not on what DEED decided before. The notice of hearing goes out at least ten calendar days ahead, along with an Appeal Hearing Guide and copies of every document in DEED's file that will be used as an exhibit, and DEED's own guidance is blunt about the format: "Appeal hearings are done by telephone," with in-person hearings reserved for unusual circumstances. On the call are the judge, you, your employer's representative (often an HR manager, sometimes an outside claims administrator who handles the company's unemployment matters), any witnesses either side brings, and an interpreter if you asked for one at least five days ahead under Minn. R. 3310.2911. Nobody else, absent consent. Hearings are not public, the judge's recording is the only recording allowed and it becomes the official record (Minn. R. 3310.2917), and every witness testifies under oath or affirmation (Minn. R. 3310.2920). Witnesses who have not yet testified are typically kept off the line so they cannot hear each other, which the rules call sequestration.
The judge asks the questions — and must help you, but is not your advocate
The hearing opens with a script the judge is required to deliver. Under Minn. R. 3310.2921, before any testimony the ULJ must tell the parties, among other things, that the purpose is to gather testimony and evidence on the issues; that this hearing is their only opportunity to present testimony and evidence; how the hearing will proceed and what the judge's role is; that either party may ask for a continuance to get additional witnesses or documents, by subpoena if necessary; that facts will be decided by a preponderance of the evidence; and that a written decision will follow. Then the questioning starts, and this is the part that surprises people: the judge asks most of the questions. The rule describes the hearing as an "evidence-gathering inquiry, without regard to a burden of proof," and says the judge "must assist all parties in the presentation of evidence" and "must ensure that all relevant facts are clearly and fully developed." The Court of Appeals has put it this way: the ULJ conducts the hearing "as an 'evidence gathering inquiry' rather than 'an adversarial proceeding.'" Ywswf v. Teleplan Wireless Services, Inc., 726 N.W.2d 525, 529 (Minn. App. 2007). That assistance is real — in White v. University of Minnesota Physicians Corp., 875 N.W.2d 351, 357 (Minn. App. 2016), the court sent a case back because the judge had not helped an unrepresented claimant develop a defense the record plainly suggested — but it has limits. The judge is not your advocate. As the court said in Stassen v. Lone Mountain Truck Leasing, LLC, 814 N.W.2d 25, 32 (Minn. App. 2012), the ULJ must assist "without losing sight of the neutrality of her role," and interrupting a party to keep the hearing on track is "consistent with her duty to exercise control." Expect to be asked direct, specific questions — dates, who said what, what the policy said, what you did next — and expect to be cut off if you drift into what is unfair about the situation rather than what happened.
Evidence, exhibits, hearsay, and subpoenas: how the record gets made
Because the judge is running an inquiry, the usual courtroom rules are mostly absent. The statute says the hearing rules "need not conform to common law or statutory rules of evidence" (§ 268.105, subd. 1(b)), and Minn. R. 3310.2922 lets the judge "receive any evidence that possesses probative value, including hearsay." That cuts both ways. The employer's HR witness can testify to what a supervisor told them, and "[a] witness at an evidentiary hearing is not required to have firsthand knowledge." Skarhus v. Davanni's Inc., 721 N.W.2d 340, 345 (Minn. App. 2006). But the same rule says the judge "may only use reliable, probative, and substantial evidence as a basis for decision," so secondhand accounts carry less weight than a witness who was actually in the room — which is why bringing the coworker who saw what happened matters more than bringing a character reference. You have the right to cross-examine the other side's witnesses, to present your own, and to object. Documents work on a schedule: under Minn. R. 3310.2912, exhibits should be submitted to the chief ULJ no later than five calendar days before the hearing so copies go to everyone; if something new comes up during the hearing, the judge can accept it but must leave the record open for the other side to respond. If a witness or document is in someone else's hands, you can request a subpoena under Minn. R. 3310.2914 by showing why it is necessary, and if the request is denied the judge must reconsider it at the hearing and continue the hearing if the denial was wrong. The one thing you cannot do is fix the record later. The rule says "[o]nly evidence received into the record of any hearing may be considered," and the Court of Appeals will not look at anything that was not put in front of the judge. Icenhower v. Total Automotive, Inc., 845 N.W.2d 849, 857 (Minn. App. 2014).
Credibility, how long it takes, and what happens after
Credibility is usually what decides the case, and the law treats it as the judge's call. "Credibility determinations are the exclusive province of the ULJ and will not be disturbed on appeal." Skarhus, 721 N.W.2d at 345. When credibility is significant to the outcome, the judge must explain in the written decision why one witness was believed over another (§ 268.105, subd. 1a(a)), and the factors courts have identified are the ones you would expect: "the witness's interest in the case's outcome, the source of the witness's information, the witness's demeanor and experience, and the reasonableness of the witness's testimony." Wichmann v. Travalia & U.S. Directives, Inc., 729 N.W.2d 23, 29 (Minn. App. 2007). On a phone call, demeanor is mostly voice: whether you answer the question that was asked, whether your account stays consistent under follow-up, whether you concede the things that are true even when they hurt. Reading a script sounds like a script, and judges have heard thousands of them. A short, honest, specific answer — "I called my manager at 6:40, before my 7:00 shift, and told her I had a fever; she said okay" — does more than a paragraph of explanation. Most hearings finish in well under two hours, and many in less than one, though a case with several witnesses or a contested timeline can run longer or be continued to a second session under Minn. R. 3310.2908. After the call ends, the judge issues written findings of fact, reasons, and a decision; DEED says that "[i]n most cases, the judge will mail a written decision within 20 days of the hearing." If you lose, you have 45 calendar days to request reconsideration by the same judge, and 45 days after that decision to petition the Minnesota Court of Appeals (§ 268.105, subds. 2 and 7) — both on the record already made.
The hearing is won before the call starts
Everything above points to the same conclusion: the hearing is won before the call starts. Calendar the hearing the day the notice arrives, and if you need to reschedule, ask the chief ULJ in advance — each side generally gets one reschedule, and not showing up at all lets the judge dismiss your appeal. Read DEED's exhibit packet line by line, because those documents are already in the record whether you like them or not. Get your own documents in five days early. Decide which witnesses actually saw what happened and confirm they will be available at the hearing time. Build a timeline you can answer questions from, and if the 45-day deadline to file has already been met, use the remaining time to map your facts onto the legal standard the judge will apply — employment misconduct if you were fired, the statutory exceptions if you quit. Our guide to how to appeal a Minnesota unemployment denial covers the full timeline, and if you want to practice being questioned, our guide on using AI to prepare for your unemployment hearing shows how to do that safely. If you would rather have an attorney build the plan — the arguments, the questions you will be asked, the witness and document list — that is what the Self-Representation Packet is, and it is designed around exactly the hearing described here.
Hearing procedures are governed by Minn. Stat. § 268.105 and Minn. R. ch. 3310 as of the "last reviewed" date above. Older court decisions quote earlier versions of the statute; the "evidence-gathering inquiry" and duty-to-assist language now appears in Minn. R. 3310.2921, and the former subpoena provision in § 268.105, subd. 4 was repealed in 2014 (see § 268.188 and Minn. R. 3310.2914).
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